At the Dallas Morning News, Mike Heika writes that the players need to stop saying that they are being bullied and aren’t getting anything in this CBA.

He says that they aren’t negotiating off of the old CBA and instead are negotiating a deal that is comparable. He writes that goalie Kari Lehtonen’s contract pays him $3.55 million but that his next contract will likely pay him $5.9 million and that neither has anything to do with one another.

“The NHL made the mistake of trying to appear to be negotiating off the old deal. It shouldn’t have. That deal is dead. It means nothing. What matters is the NHL is comparing CBA numbers from the NFL and the NBA systems, while the players are trying to get a system closer to that used in MLB.”

In closing, Heika writes that this is just business and in the end both sides are doing what they are doing because they want the most money out of the deal.